Minor updates for 3DMark and PCMark 8 3DMark v1.4.828 (Windows) This is a minor update. Benchmark scores are unaffected. IMPROVED SystemInfo module updated to 4.32 for improved hardware detection. Reduced hardware monitoring overhead (was already negligible). Product key is no longer visible on the Help tab unless you choose to reveal it. FIXED Fixed a memory access violation issue with Ice Storm and Cloud Gate that could occasionally cause crashes in stress testing scenarios. Letterboxed scaling mode now retains a 16:9 aspect ratio even when selecting a non-default Output Resolution on the Help tab. PROFESSIONAL EDITION ONLY Fixed the “No outputs found on DXGI adapter” issue in the Command Line application affecting laptops with NVIDIA Optimus graphics switching technology. Fixed custom_x.3dmdef files to use the centred scaling mode by default. You can now change the scaling mode from a .3dmdef file and via command line. DOWNLOAD http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark#windows PCMark 8 v2.3.293 A bug fix in this update means that scores from the Storage Consistency and Storage Adaptivity tests included in PCMark 8 Professional Edition may improve slightly on some hardware. Other benchmark scores are not affected. IMPROVED SystemInfo module updated to 4.32 for improved hardware compatibility. FIXED Fixed an issue that could cause the Adobe After Effects test to fail. Fixed an issue that prevented the Storage benchmark from running on dynamic disks, includin...

UL Signals Strategic Expansion into Performance Benchmarking Services with Futuremark Acquisition UL, a global safety science leader, today announced the acquisition of Futuremark, the market leading provider of performance benchmarking software. Futuremark, a privately held company based in Finland, develops the world’s most widely used benchmarks for desktop computers, notebooks, tablets and smart phones. NORTHBROOK, Ill. – November 3, 2014– UL, a global safety science leader, today announced the acquisition of Futuremark, the market leading provider of performance benchmarking software. Futuremark, a privately held company based in Finland, develops the world’s most widely used benchmarks for desktop computers, notebooks, tablets and smart phones. The acquisition marks UL’s entry into the software development industry, a strategic imperative for the company to help meet the growing demand for performance data. “Embedded software is now an important part of product design. With an increased focus on mobility, we see more and more products being connected, making the Internet of Things a reality. Consequently, software quality is a significant driver of product safety and performance; and we believe that benchmarking is an important way to help our customers to improve the performance of their products,” said Stephen Kirk, VP and GM of UL Consumer Technology Division. “This acquisition provides us with an opportunity to build a new business line in testing...

World’s first 4K Ultra HD benchmark – available now The buzz around 4K gaming continues to grow, but can the latest hardware really deliver? And are the extra pixels worth the extra cost? Lately, we are being asked the same questions again and again: Should I buy a 4K monitor for my current PC setup? What hardware do I need to play games at 4K Ultra HD resolution? To answer those questions, we’ve created Fire Strike Ultra, the world’s first 4K Ultra HD benchmark, available now and ready to use in the latest version of 3DMark. Run Fire Strike Ultra on your existing PC to answer the first question. Fire Strike Ultra renders the test content at 3840 x 2160 (4K Ultra HD) before scaling the output to your PC’s display resolution. This means you don’t need a 4K monitor to run Fire Strike Ultra, though you will need a GPU with at least 3 GB of dedicated memory. For the second question, you can help your readers understand whether new hardware delivers on the 4K promise by testing it with Fire Strike Ultra. And while it’s always been possible to run 4K tests with custom settings in 3DMark, using a dedicated 4K test will provide a common reference point for all your reviews. Your readers will also be able to search for and compare Fire Strike Ultra scores for different hardware configurations on our website. To say that Fire Strike Ultra is demanding is putting it mildly. Most people know that 4K Ultra HD is four times larger than 1080p, bu...

PCMark 8 update adds quick test option We released a minor update for PCMark 8 today that adds a much requested feature. By default, PCMark 8 runs each test workload three times, using the average to calculate the overall score. We’ve found that this is the best way to smooth out any variance introduced by operating system factors outside of the benchmark itself. Repeating each test three times, however, does mean that it can take a long time to complete a benchmark run. We know that when troubleshooting or trying to improve performance it would be helpful to run a shorter test that completes in less time. This update introduces a new command line option to PCMark 8 Professional Edition that allows you to set the number of passes for each test. Set –pass=1 for a quick test running each workload just once. Or set –pass to a higher number to repeat each test multiple times for highly accurate benchmark results. You can read the complete release notes for this update below. PCMark 8 will prompt you to install the update, or you can download the latest version here: http://www.futuremark.com/downloads/pcmark8.zip (2.9 GB) P.S. If you test Android smart phones and tablets regularly you might like to join our PCMark for Android press preview program. It’s your chance to try our new PCMark for Android benchmark before its public launch later this month. Find out more and sign up here: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/pcmark-android PCMark 8 v2.2.282 Th...

European Commission and Three National Governments Choose PCMark Benchmarks to Specify PC Performance in High Volume Tenders European Commision, France, Northern Ireland, and Brazil turn to Futuremark benchmarks for impartial performance comparisons HELSINKI, FINLAND – July 7, 2014 – Futuremark announced today that its PCMark benchmarking software has been chosen by the European Commission Directorate-General for Informatics (DIGIT) to specify the minimum required performance for over 100,000 PCs to be supplied to more than 50 European Union organisations. PCMark has also been incorporated into the tendering, procurement and purchasing departments of the governments of France, Northern Ireland, and Brazil. PCMark is a complete benchmarking solution for business, enterprise, government, and other professional users. PCMark provides procurement departments, supply chain managers, and IT departments with accurate and impartial benchmarks for specifying and comparing the performance of Windows PCs, notebooks, and tablets. PCMark is developed in close cooperation with the world’s leading technology companies including AMD, Compal, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Quanta Computer, SanDisk Corporation, Seagate Technology, and Western Digital Corporation. Developer Futuremark is an independently owned company developing benchmarking software to a strict code of neutrality. European Union The Directorate-General for Informatics (DIGIT) defines ...

New 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark available today, from 13:00 UTC Hot on the heels of all the hardware announcements at Computex, our new 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark test is ready to download and use today, from 13:00 UTC. http://www.futuremark.com/3dmark Please read the important note from NVIDIA below about driver compatibility. Every single 3DMark user – more than a million and counting – will get Sky Diver as a free update. For new users, Sky Diver is unlocked and ready to use in all editions of 3DMark. And for a limited time, you can buy 3DMark Advanced Edition, which includes more tests, custom settings and other features, from Steam for only $9.99 (60% off). http://store.steampowered.com/app/223850/ Sky Diver is a new DirectX 11 benchmark test for gaming laptops and mid-range PCs. It’s ideal for testing mainstream graphics cards, mobile GPUs, integrated graphics and other systems that cannot achieve double-digit frame rates in the more demanding Fire Strike test. Together, Sky Diver and Fire Strike let you test the full range of DirectX 11 graphics hardware. Fire Strike is equivalent to testing a system with a modern DirectX 11 game on ultra-high settings. Sky Diver is more like running a game on normal settings. As a general guide: If a system scores less than 2800 in Fire Strike you should run Sky Diver. If a system scores more than 12000 in Sky Diver, you should run Fire Strike. Please note that Sky Diver and Fire Strike scores are not dire...

Futuremark Announces 3DMark Sky Diver Benchmark Trailer shows new test for DirectX 11 gaming laptops and mid-range PCs HELSINKI, FINLAND – May 28, 2014 – Futuremark today announced 3DMark Sky Diver, a new DirectX 11 benchmark test for gaming laptops and mid-range PCs. 3DMark Sky Diver is the ideal test for benchmarking systems with mainstream DirectX 11 graphics cards, mobile GPUs, or integrated graphics. A preview trailer for the new benchmark shows a wingsuited woman skydiving into a mysterious, uncharted location. The scene is brought to life with tessellation, particles and advanced post-processing effects. Sky Diver will be shown in full at Computex from June 3-7, or find out more on the Futuremark website: http://www.futuremark.com/3dmark Screenshots: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark#skydiver Jukka Mäkinen, Futuremark CEO said, “Some people think that 3DMark is only for high-end hardware and extreme overclocking. Yet millions of PC gamers rely on 3DMark to choose systems that best balance performance, efficiency and affordability. 3DMark Sky Diver complements our other tests by providing the ideal benchmark for gaming laptops and mainstream PCs.” 3DMark – The Gamer’s Benchmark for all your hardware 3DMark is the only benchmark that offers a range of tests for different classes of hardware: Fire Strike, for high performance gaming PCs (DirectX 11, feature level 11) Sky Diver, for gaming laptops and mid-range PCs (DirectX ...

Microsoft shared the first public details of DirectX 12 at GDC yesterday. And I’m delighted that they chose 3DMark 11 to demonstrate the advantages of the new API. In their words, “3DMark [11] on Direct3D 11 uses multi-threading extensively, however due to a combination of runtime and driver overhead, there is still significant idle time on each core. After porting the benchmark to use Direct3D 12, we see two major improvements – a 50% improvement in CPU utilization, and better distribution of work among threads.” The chart shows the time 3DMark 11 spends in each thread in DirectX 11 (top) and DirectX 12 (bottom). This MSDN blog post explains how the efficiencies in DirectX 12 are achieved: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/03/20/directx-12.aspx A new 3DMark test for DirectX 12 With DirectX 12 game developers will be able to create richer scenes with more objects by better utilizing modern GPU hardware. DirectX 12 also introduces a set of new rendering features that will dramatically improve the efficiency of algorithms such as order-independent transparency, collision detection, and geometry culling. I’m excited to announce that we are creating a new 3DMark benchmark that will demonstrate and test the full capabilities of DirectX 12.

Introduction In HELSINKI, FINLAND on February 13, 2013 Futuremark® announced it is creating a new benchmark for measuring and comparing the performance of servers. This product is designed for industry, enterprise and press users. Servermark™ will be a comprehensive benchmarking tool for x86-based servers running Linux and will be especially suitable for testing virtual machines. This product will feature a variety of benchmark tests for web servers, file servers, database servers, media servers and other common server use cases. For details on this product please visit http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/servermark As with all Futuremark benchmarks, The Servermark will be developed in partnership with leading hardware companies. The Servermark Benchmark Development Program™ members will have the opportunity to provide input at all stages of development in addition to receiving regular development builds and complimentary site licenses for the new benchmark. Any technology companies interested in joining the Servermark Benchmark Development Program should call Oliver Baltuch on +1-408-614-2025 (PST) or email bdp@futuremark.com. Find out more about Servermark and the Benchmark Development Program on the Futuremark website, or follow Futuremark on LinkedIn for the latest company news. About Futuremark® Futuremark® creates the world’s most popular benchmark tests. Futuremark’s 3DMark®, PCMark®, Powermark® and Peacekeeper™ tests have helped million...

Introduction There is a major update that adds new tests and workloads to PCMark 8. Scores from the Home, Creative and Work benchmarks in PCMark 8 v2.0.191 are not comparable with scores from v1.2.157 or other previous versions. This update adds a new Compatibility Mode setting to the Professional and Advanced Editions that enables you to run older versions of each test for times when you need to compare scores with historical benchmark results. These notes are a summary of the changes in this update. Please read the PCMark 8 Technical Guide for detailed descriptions of the new tests and workloads. Home benchmark Home updated to version 3.0. Scores should not be compared with previous versions. New Photo Editing test using the open source ImageMagick library and a wider variety of image processing operations. Video Chat test now features improved face detection and performance. The test has been updated to use OpenCV 2.4.7. Creative benchmark Creative updated to version 3.0. Scores should not be compared with previous versions. Photo Editing test using the open source ImageMagick library and a wider variety of image processing operations. Video Editing part 2 now uses source material in 4K UHD resolution (3840×2160). Video Group Chat test now features improved face detection and performance. The test has been updated to use OpenCV 2.4.7. Work benchmark Work updated to version 2.0. Scores should not be compared with previous versions. Work version 2.0 adds a new Spre...

3DMark is now available as a free app for Windows RT devices from Windows Store: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/3dmark/f71eedf2-76ac-4be9-a073-13142d4a87fe 3DMark on Windows RT includes the same benchmarks as the Android and iOS editions. Cross-platform benchmarking across Windows, Android, iOS, and Windows RT is easy, fast and accurate with 3DMark. 3DMark Ice Storm is a DirectX 11 feature level 9 benchmark, (the modern equivalent of DirectX 9), for testing Windows RT tablets and notebooks. It includes two 720p Graphics tests designed to stress graphical (GPU) performance and a Physics test to stress processing (CPU) performance. 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme raises the Graphics tests’ rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest mobile devices. 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited is a different type of benchmark, one designed to test the raw performance of the underlying hardware. Use Ice Storm Unlimited to compare different chipsets, CPUs and GPUs without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result. You’ll find more details in our technical guide: http://www.futuremark.com/downloads/3DMark_Technical_Guide.pdf

This update adds compatibility with Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11, introduces new options for testing OpenCL, and adds detailed hardware monitoring graphs. Scores from the Work, Storage and Applications benchmarks are not affected by this update. Scores from the Home and Creative benchmarks should not be compared with scores from previous versions of PCMark 8 due to the addition of new run modes for those tests. PCMark v1.1.111 uses a new installer. If your system has an older version of PCMark 8 installed, you should manually uninstall it using Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel before installing this update. You should also manually uninstall SystemInfo. New The Home and Creative benchmarks now offer a choice of run modes. Conventional mode does not use OpenCL, reflecting how the majority of software works today. Accelerated mode uses OpenCL acceleration, anticipating how software will work in the future. New interactive graphs show hardware monitoring data from each benchmark run. Improved Progress windows now show estimated time for each test. SystemInfo scan is now at least 50% faster. Compatibility Compatible with Windows 8.1. Compatible with Internet Explorer 11. SystemInfo updated to v4.21 for improved compatibility with the latest hardware. New troubleshooting options for OpenCL device selection in Help tab. Fixed Fixed an issue in the Web Browsing test that could cause the test to hang. Fixed an issue with Video Chat and Video Group Chat show...

3DMark is today’s Daily Deal on Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/app/223850/ 3DMark on Steam 3DMark includes three benchmarks – Ice Storm, Cloud Gate and Fire Strike – for testing everything from notebooks to high-end gaming PCs. Designed for gamers, overclockers and system builders, 3DMark Advanced Edition improves upon the free version by allowing you to: Run each test individually – skip the tablet and notebook tests when benchmarking a gaming PC. Unlock the Fire Strike Extreme preset for testing PCs with multiple GPUs. Use custom settings to explore your PC’s limits. Use benchmark looping for testing your PC’s stability when overclocked. Earn Steam Achievements(!) and compete for the fastest PC on Steam leaderboards. Move your key freely between the Steam and standalone versions.

3DMark added a new test to for making chip-to-chip comparisons across mobile devices and operating systems. 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited provides an accurate way to measure component performance without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result. In Unlimited mode the rendering engine uses a fixed time step between frames and renders exactly the same frames in every run on every device. The frames are rendered in 720p resolution “offscreen” while the display is updated with small frame thumbnails every 100 frames to show progress. Ice Storm Unlimited can be added to 3DMark for Android by updating to version 1.1.0-1179 from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.futuremark.dmandroid.application How to choose the right benchmark for your device Forced vertical sync on Android devices limits apps to displaying a maximum of 60 frames per second. Your score will be shown as “Maxed out” if your device hits the vertical sync limit during a test. This indicates that the test is too lightweight for your device. 3DMark will recommend the best test for your device to avoid vertical sync limits. Use 3DMark Ice Storm to make device-to-device comparisons of mainstream smartphones and tablets. Ice Storm includes two Graphics tests designed to stress the graphical (GPU) performance of your device and a Physics test to stress its processing (CPU) performance. Devices that are too fast f...

Futuremark® is creating a new PCMark® benchmark for Android, iOS and Windows RT devices and is calling on mobile manufacturers to join the development. Companies in the PCMark Mobile Benchmark Development Program (BDP) will have the opportunity to provide input at all stages of development in addition to receiving regular development builds and complimentary site licenses for the new benchmark. Technology companies operating in the mobile industry such as carriers, OEMs, ODMs, component manufacturers and their suppliers are invited to apply for BDP membership now. For details please visit http://www.futuremark.com/bdp. “We take great pride in working with the top technology companies to create the best benchmarks for consumers, industry and press,” said Jukka Mäkinen, Futuremark CEO. “After shaking up the mobile landscape with 3DMark we’re looking forward to doing the same with a new PCMark benchmark for Android, iOS and Windows RT.” Like its Windows counterpart, PCMark for mobile platforms will feature benchmark tests based on common use scenarios, focusing on the activities and tasks that smartphone and tablet owners perform every day. Designed for modern mobile devices, PCMark will provide a view of real-world system performance and power efficiency. “Editors and test lab managers tell us they desperately need a credible benchmark for comparing the most popular smartphones and tablets,” said Oliver Baltuch, Futuremark Preside...